Agriculture continues to be the main source of livelihood in developing countries and smallholder farming is the most common type of agriculture practice supporting more than 70% of the population. On the other hand, information and communication technology (ICT) is quickly growing as its helping to connect easier and faster; thus, a dire need to harness it in promoting the agricultural sector. This study investigated the Information Communication Technology Devices for Agricultural Information Dissemination among Smallholder Farmers in Uganda (Rubanda, Mayuge Districts, And Mbarara City). The study adopted a cross-sectional research design that comprised a mixed methods approach of quantitative and qualitative. The instrument for this study consisted of structured questionnaires and interviews. More so, available reports and records were explored. The questionnaire was subjected to face and content validity and reliability test. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics of frequency counts and percentages. Findings show that the leading types of ICT devices for agricultural information dissemination in Rubanda District, Mayuge District, and Mbarara City were mobile phones and radios. The study recommends that the most important information to farmers should always be disseminated via phone conversation, texting, and radio for broadcast agricultural-related programs in respective local languages
In emerging nations, the use of information and communication technology has considerably benefitted the advancement of agriculture, health, rural development, and education. This technique has had a considerable impact on the way agriculture is developed in third-world countries. For information on the weather and prices, farmers now have direct access to the market, buyers, customers, and the metrological department. Information and communication technology has increased farmer incomes all over the world. It is now vital to provide access to facilities and introduce technology to rural areas where farmers lack knowledge, information, and skills regarding this technology. Several studies have also demonstrated that the adoption of information and communication technology tools in agricultural production has increased agricultural productivity. A few of the major problems and challenges that farmers encounter includes inadequate information transfer, poor agricultural practices, record reconciliation between farmers, the government, and traders, and a lack of understanding of the best farming techniques
The advancement of web technologies has innovated tools and software applications, also known web 2.0, to support collaborative teaching, learning and research. These technologies offer learners and learning facilitators an opportunity to interact both vertically and horizontally beyond four walls of the classroom. This study provided further understanding, from students' perspective, of issues surrounding usage of web 2.0 Technologies in Mui University, Uganda. This was achieved by: assessing the students' awareness of Web 2.0 technologies, ascertaining the usage of Web 2.0 technologies, and establishing barriers that hinder students to use web 2.0 technologies for teaching and learning beyond the four walls of classroom. Questionnaires were administered to 100 students from the Faculty of Technoscience, Muni University. SPSS v.21 was used to analyse the data collected. The results were presented in form of tables, charts, means, and percentages were used to indicate the student's experiences on the usage of web 2.0 technologies in the learning process at Muni University. The research revealed that the students know and always use mainly YouTube, Facebook and Google during their studies. The study further showed that students use web 2.0 in both academic and personal activities with at least 73.8% of the respondents expressing that they use web 2.0 in collaborating with lecturers and fellow students in addition to fulfilling the university learning requirements. The study also found that students are challenged by low-speed Internet connections, lack of appropriate devices to support web 2.0, timeconsuming nature of web 2.0, inadequate literacy skills to use web 2.0, and tight restrictions and lengthy procedures by local authorities over the use of internet e.g. Over the Top Tax (OTT) being imposed by the Government of Uganda. The researchers recommend that different stakeholders should support students to embrace the use web 2.0 in learning, e.g., the learning facilitators need to advocate for and provide continuous awareness, the national government needs to provide an equitable environment like internet and its infrastructure that will foster learning through the use of web 2.0, and parents should provide basic facilities like smartphones and laptops for use in learning.
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